"I'm Nigerian. If you don't study to be a doctor or something like that, it's not seen as success. I wasn't great at it," she says of medicine.

The 27-year-old, who has a fresh PhD in security engineering, is manager for global cybersecurity strategy and awareness at United Airlines. It's a big job made even more daunting by the escalation in hacking and other cyberthreats.

She stumbled into computer security while studying business at DeVry, where she took an information-security class as an elective and had to decrypt a cipher. "I was up till 3 a.m. trying to crack this," she says. "It was the adrenaline rush I got, trying to do it."

That led to a master's program in information systems security at the University of Houston, which opened the door to an internship at Continental Airlines. "I had no idea there were cybersecurity opportunities in the airline industry," said Izuakor, who ended up in Chicago after the merger of Continental and United.

Her career timing couldn't have been better, as airlines become more dependent on computer technology, from selling tickets to managing flight operations. "It's a landscape that's shifting quickly," she said. "In aviation, there isn't just a concern about confidentiality of data, it's also about safety. A lot of people don't link cybersecurity to aviation."

A big part of her job involves internal security, one of the key weaknesses in cyber defense. (Suspected Russian interference in U.S. elections is believed to have stemmed from a phishing attack, or tricking an employee at the Democratic National Committee into clicking on a seemingly harmless e-mail.)

"It's a very hot topic," she said. "It's one of the most common ways people try to get into organizations."

Izuakor leads United's global security awareness program that includes more than 80,000 employees in 54 countries.

"It has such a huge impact, making people more knowledgeable about what to look for," she added. "The human element of security is unpredictable. It's an aspect that companies struggle with."